When do you know that you really have reached the next level in the nightclub business? How about when Harvard turns your club and company into a case study. So cograts to Noah T. and Jason S. on the achievement, as the future capitalists of America dissect Marquee's future after its run at the top New York club scene for the past 5+ years. The study details Noah and Jason's rise in the nightlife industry, the economics of running a nightclub, Strategic Group's impact on their bottom line, and perhaps most interesting, how reliant Marquee has become on promoters to drive customers to the club on a nightly basis. But like all good case studies, the question of where the business goes from here is put to the students. In this instance, Tepperberg says:

We can ride it out. We can continue as we are, operate the business every day, go to work every day, try to keep doing the nearly impossible by staying in business longer than most nightclubs, and fix any problems that come our way. We could also take our team and move on to a new place, a new challenge - there are many pros and many cons to doing that. Or we could just put the club up for sale, and take an offer with a good price.

Well, we know that they are focused on getting Earth up and running, and that interest in the 27th Street area continues to decline. So what are they to do? Bueller?

A Lonely Night Outside BungalowA peculiar email popped into our Birdy Box this morning. A Little Birdy who is most definitely in the know just wanted to make sure we knew that a top nightclub operator had not been approached by Amy Sacco to buy Bungalow 8. We don't think much about Bungalow these days, but this denial of an unasked question got us wondering if Ms. Sacco is trying to unload the space after all these years, and if so, just who would want to buy it? We put on our Hardy Boys costumes and decided to do some additional sleuthing, reaching out to some additional Little Birdys to see if they had any songs to sing. One LB tells us "they hear something new with her every day. One day she is selling it. The next she is going to redo it." A second tells us "She's been trying to sell forever. But no one has wanted it." Ouch. That's a long way to fall for the former Queen of Cool. Meanwhile, the club still soldiers on for the few who still spend their time there, acting as a fallback choice to newer clubs that mimic the faux exclusivity that Amy helped popularize. As for a potential sale, a guru in these matters questions the chances, saying that the club "isn't worth much anyway!" Double ouch. But as far as she may have fallen, this is a town built by people given 2nd and 3rd and 4th chances. Amy Sacco may be down, but we certainly won't count her out.

[Photo Credit]

More fun from the Eldridge, where unlike other lounges in New York, the customer is the #1 top priority. According to a Little Birdy, a would be birthday girl worked with club management to celebrate a special birthday with friends in the tiny space. When they showed up to get the night started, the entire party was turned away. Our LB says, "she had planned it way in advance and they made her promise to buy several bottles of overpriced alcohol." Left out in the cold with the birthday potentially ruined, the group started working furiously to find an alternative. LB says,  "finally, bungalow took them (they got a table and bottles)." You know they always have room. Another stunning example of the Eldrige being in a class of its own.